I’m trying to put Batocera on a 1 TB SATA SSD, Failing Validation

Product support
1

I am using 2 different computers (it doesn’t work on either) to flash Batocera 42 onto a 1 TB SATA SSD. It used to have Windows on it (and Windows worked) but after many failures, the SSD is now blank. At first when I tried to select Batocera 42 in Etcher it would say:

Error opening source
Something went wrong while opening
C: \Users\SteamDeck\Desktop|batocera-x86_64-42-2025… batocera-x86_
_64-42-20251006.img.
Error: (0, h.requestMetidata) is not a function

then I tried opening Balena Etcher again (I think as an Admin) and it worked. I selected my SATA SSD that I connected with a cable and then I selected Flash. The Flash bar completes and then normally at the end of the validation bars completion it says:

Something went wrong. If it is a compressed image, please check that the archive is not corrupted.

The writer process ended unexpectedly

I have tried this on 2 different computers (both running Windows 10) and I get the exact error. I have redownloaded Batocera 42 and Etcher and the SSD was running Windows before and I reinitialized it so I don’t believe it is corrupt

Please help me, I have been fighting this thing for 2 nights straight!

2

Which version of Etcher are you using? Also, is the SSD you are trying to flash onto completely blank with no partitions? You may be able to confirm using Windows disk manager or diskpart.

I find it easier (and less “dangerous”) to flash external drives when connected to USB through a SATA to USB adapter, if you happen to have one available.